As I stated in my other thread, I had the opportunity to go to Lord Howe Island, a small island 600kms north east of Sydney in the Tasman Sea off the east coast of Australia, to photograph the abundant sea and land birds and the stunning scenery. Lord Howe is only a small island of 11kms long and between .3km - 2km wide and has been widely regarded as the most beautiful island in the Pacific. It is one of just four island groups to be inscribed on UNESCO’s World Heritage list for the global significance of its natural beauty and heritage and was ranked first in the list of "The 25 most amazing islands on earth" in "Islands Magazine"Sacred Kingfisher
Model NIKON D800 + 300mm f2.8 VRII + 2x TCIII
Focal Length 600 mm
Exposure Time 1/2500 sec
Aperture f/8
ISO Equivalent 320

dorian wrote:
wow that second rail shot is great. nice to see one running around out in the open as opposed to buried in reeds. the second kingfisher shot is outstanding too....

dorian

Thank you again for your lovely comments, Dorian!

It is amazing to see the Buff Banded Rails as they are pretty much unfazed by humans and will walk almost up to you. When I took the shot of the Buff Banded Rail with chick I was kneeling down, and the chick would not come anywhere near me, but the adult would walk right up to me, within 3 feet of me, and do a complete circle around me completely oblivious to me being there! It was too close to photograph!

Unfortunately, the Kingfishers were very flighty and would not let us get near them. One of the only places to get decent shots of them was near the airport (of all places) and hence the posts etc, where they would allow us to be reasonably close, and that meant only about 8-10mts. All the other places we tried to get photos of them they wouldn't let us get anywhere near them. One spot where two of them frequented was a field near a forest. Every time I approached the tree that they were in they flew to a tree 50mts away and when i went to that tree they flew back to the first tree. This went on back and forth for about 15 minutes before I gave up with this silly waste of time!